This Saturday, the Panthers (1-2) fell to Southern Utah (2-1) 21-24 on the road in Utah.

The game came down to the Panthers’ inability to move the ball on offense, aside from a 4th quarter pass thrown by quarterback Eli Dunne to Trevor Allen to bring the score close.

The Panthers just couldn’t seem to break the defensive line of Southern Utah, as they were held to 49 yards on almost 30 carries. Those numbers are eclipsed by an impressive performance by Southern Utah’s running game, netting 167 yards on 43 carries and two touchdowns.

A common theme over the last two games is dominant performances by senior Daurice Fountain. Fountain finished the last two games with over 200 yards and three touchdowns combined. He netted 138 yards on eight catches Saturday. He is proving to be a versatile wideout for opposing secondaries to deal with.

The Panthers’ defense put together its best performance all season on Saturday. Jared Farley continues to show his dominance with another turnover to his name, this time on a interception and 38 yard return.

Farley also netted 12 tackles, one tackle for a loss and the previous interception. The Panthers’ defense continued by picking off the ball two more times and racking up one sack.

Dunne continues to split his targets well, completing passes to nine different receivers, for 284 yards. Fountain, Jaylin James, Briley Moore, and Elias Nissen all found themselves with a healthy amount of targets and catches from Dunne.

However, interceptions are still an issue for Dunne as he threw two interceptions later in the game. This is largely due to the lack of success by a struggling Panther run game, which forced Dunne to throw the ball 47 times.

The Panthers will travel to Illinois to play the Southern Illinois Salukis, who started off with a dominant 2-0 season, beating both opponents by  large margins including a 55-3 trashing of Mississippi Valley State.

The Salukis have a dominant quarterback in Sam Straub and a versatile rungame. However, last year Aaron Bailey and the Panthers dominated the Southern Illinois defense and finished with a 42-21 score.

The game will be played Sept. 30th. Kickoff is at 6 p.m. in Carbondale, Illinois.